High Profile MNL - Brand Design

High Profile MNL is brand in a mission to help struggling hip-hop artists in trying to promote their music. Starting out as a small promotion company, later boomed into a collective in the local hip-hop scene. They approached me wanting to take things to the next level by slowly shifting their brand to not just music promotion but into fashion aswell. They wanted to approach things by incorporating local hip-hop music with the purpose of creating high quality products in trying to scale up their business.

In more ways than one, communication was an integral part in this project and trying to incorporate the client’s wants into my visual representation for the brand became the determining factor. I wanted to meet their requirements while at the same time making their identity effective, durable, and flexible in the industry they’re tipping their toes in. My role was to bridge that gap and help them build a consistent audience by making them look good and reflect the higher class feel that they wanted to convey.

Goals & Requirements

Premium quality fashion line

Brand identity & imagery

Effectivity, Durability, and Flexibility

With the intel I gathered from what the client wanted, I slowly dived into what their direct competitors do in order to learn the things they’re doing right for themselves and their audience. From my market research, I found that the logos and identities were simple typemarks but still memorable. This allowed me to try my hand on some options and look into what the client liked best. Eventually we narrowed down on one option and applied further refinements to properly communicate how they wanted to be seen by their audience.

From what I learned, they wanted to be identified as someone confident but innovative enough to push boundaries against the norm. This reflected their passion in collaborating with lesser known local hip-hop acts who felt the same sense of confidence in their talents.

Along with a solid bold typemark, I added a little iconography to make it more recognizable and stand out from their competitors. This also allowed them to create a few more variations for their first release of products which in turn allowed their target audience to have some options on what to get.

After the project was done, I’ve reached out to the client after a month to check in on how effective their first campaign was. What I learned was that their initial releases were sold out after about 3 weeks and was currently reproducing some of their best selling items. It also boosted the familiarity for their brand in the local hip-hop scene where they managed to reach more investments, artists, and wider audience. We’ve stayed in touch as I guide some of their new designers to their established brand identity through consultations but with a lot less design work.